William & Susan Schran User on fri 29 sep 06
On 9/28/06 9:41 PM, "Craig Clark" wrote:
> Also be certain that the contract includes the maximum number
> of days from the date of a sale to the day you will be paid. If the
> gallery or shop is on the up and up they will pay their vendors and
> consignment folk monthly for sales in that month, or shortly thereafter.
Having owned a gallery where we did wholesale purchasing and consignment, I
want to "ditto" everything that Craig wrote and add:
When a gallery/retail shop holds your work for consignment sale, they are
holding it in trust. The work still belongs to you.
It is the law that when work on consignment is sold, the seller must hold
your percentage in trust. Your percentage of the sale belongs to you and the
gallery may not use that money for anything else. But in the real world,
galleries are sometimes strapped for cash and use that money to pay for
their expenses and that's where they start down that slippery slope.
Most often if something is stolen/damaged, you will be paid only the
percentage that would be due as if it had been sold. The gallery probably
will have a deductible on their insurance. I know we had a fairly large
deductible and if something small on consignment was damaged, we would pay
out of pocket rather than filing a claim - which would increase premiums.
It should be written in the contract exact dates when you will be paid for
sale of work. Usually it's the beginning of the month following the sale. At
the end of the month we would spend a few days (takes time doing it yourself
while running the business) going over income and expenses and writing out
checks to the artists.
-- William "Bill" Schran
Fredericksburg, Virginia
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
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